Cadaver dog finds more human remains during plane wreckage search

Atlas Air Capt. Ricky Blakely was killed when Atlas Air flight 3591 crashed into the shallow waters of Trinity Bay on Saturday, Feb. 23, 2019, near Anahuac. His remains were recovered Feb. 26.

Atlas Air Capt. Ricky Blakely was killed when Atlas Air flight 3591 crashed into the shallow waters of Trinity Bay on Saturday, Feb. 23, 2019, near Anahuac. His remains were recovered Feb. 26.

Photo: Chambers County Sheriff's Office

Photo: Chambers County Sheriff's Office

Image
1of/63

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 63

Atlas Air Capt. Ricky Blakely was killed when Atlas Air flight 3591 crashed into the shallow waters of Trinity Bay on Saturday, Feb. 23, 2019, near Anahuac. His remains were recovered Feb. 26.

Atlas Air Capt. Ricky Blakely was killed when Atlas Air flight 3591 crashed into the shallow waters of Trinity Bay on Saturday, Feb. 23, 2019, near Anahuac. His remains were recovered Feb. 26.

Photo: Chambers County Sheriff's Office

Cadaver dog finds more human remains during plane wreckage search

1 / 63

Back to Gallery

A cadaver dog has found parts of a third set of human remains Tuesday while investigating the Boeing 767 cargo plane wreckage in Trinity Bay, according to authorities.

The identity of the remains, and whether they belong to a member of the doomed three-man crew is pending a DNA confirmation, Chambers County Sheriff Brian Hawthorne said.

Atlas Air flight 3591 plunged into the shallow waters Saturday while traveling from Miami to Houston, casting a three-mile-long debris field. The remains found by the cadaver dog around 2 p.m. were not intact due to the “tremendous impact” of the crash, the sheriff suggested.

“We’re still looking for more human remains. We won’t stop until that third body is found,” Hawthorne said during a press conference.

The three killed in the crash have been identified as Capt. Sean Archuleta, of Houston, Capt. Ricky Blakely, of Indiana, and First Officer Conrad Jules Aska, of Antigua, all of whom were flying the twin-engine jet airliner under an Amazon Prime Air Fleet contract. The National Transportation Safety Board, an independent federal agency that investigates civil aviation accidents, is handling the crash probe.

The aircraft was built in 1992 and was converted to a cargo plane in recent years, FAA records show.

A drudging contractor was set to begin combing the water’s surface and later the quicksand-like mud for crash debris, according to authorities.

The mud could also be impacting the discovery of the plane’s black box, FBI Assistant Special Agent Ed Michel said.

“The mud could play a part in the interference with the signal and acquisition of the signal itself,” Michel said.